Greg's Last Post from Jakarta

Yesterday was rather heartwarming for me. Tired as I was and strictly told by our facilitator to sit on the sidelines, I was beginning to drift away. Then the group doing the presentation on “Pre-negotiated Agreements” came up to do their presentation. First thing I noticed was that it was a group of Country Directors or Program Directors …depending on what you call it. Second thing was that they were beaming full of energy and genuinely excited. Then they began to present – in detail – a vision forward in which their organizations would take advantage of each organization comparative advantages and begin to develop a common framework for emergency response that spoke of leveraging each other’s strengths and included MOU’s between agencies that clearly defined roles. As I watched the presentation …I began to see doubt come over the face of some of the audience members as they recognized some of the barriers to be faced in making this happen. But as the questions or doubt started pouring in to the group after their presentation …I watched as one CD after the other got up to respond to the questions …each showing with the same energy and passion as the presenter. There was no pragmatic hedging or doubt here …to them this was real and doable.

It is at times like that I remember why I took this job and why I remain committed to this work. Thanks for listening over the last few days.


Gregory Brady,
Director, Emergency Capacity Building Project

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Charlie on Day 2 of the Phase II Design Workshop

Well, Matt said I should try blogging on my own now. Seems that I am now competent enough to be a self-sufficient blogger and I only had my first experience two weeks ago!!!! (Hope for all now!)

Anyways- we wrapped up the last day of the field design workshop. My thoughts are plenty...
1) Sadly, Ethiopia and Guatemala were not represented. My concern is that their voices won't be heard in this. This workshop was very much focused on Indonesia and how Phase II could work for them. This is great, but I think we are missing some other important elements here - maybe we need to ask how we can get that critical input in Geneva if not before hand.
2) My big surprise - there really is momentum for collaboration in Indonesia. It seems that ECB 3 has stimulated an interest in getting together to work on some common pain points to improve our emergency response. According to Jordan Lewis, there are reasons we (at HQ levels and Initiative Manager levels) never heard about the desire and energy around this - one being that informality and comfort make for the impetus to communicate with HQ.
3) Another surprise - Of all the issues that this group wants to work on - DRR did NOT come out at all until the end when a couple folks said "oh yeah - we shouldn't lose this - it is a good idea and relevant to our programs." "Housing" issues around DRR also came up - does it sit in development or emergency departments? Does it really belong in ECB? Someone else mentioned regret at not bringing it up as a priority earlier and that ECB should not lose it. Mmmmm.....
4) Congratulations - ECB 2 Success - So it seems that some ECB 2 components are getting filtered down to and used at the field level. Looks like there is energy around the guide and future joint evaluations and assessments. Folks at the workshop are saying that accountability to people we serve is really IMPORTANT and a PRIORITY for them!!!!!
5) Some other clear messages came out for Phase II as well including "don't do again lists," potential field structures and mechanisms for Indonesia, needs for Management Information Systems (MIS), and the need for pre-existing relationships in emergency response.

Well- I think the Design Committee and the consultants have their work cut out for them.... I think we all look forward to seeing the draft product in a couple of weeks.
Off to Padang and Bali....
Over and Out.
Charlie

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Indonesian chickens and eggs: more from the Phase II design workshop in Jakarta

Today, we largely tackled debates around collaboration. There were a few issues that I picked up on from the IWG country programs here in the Indonesia Design Workshop.


1) There was a query on what communities of practice were. The fact that this came up again validated that this is not a concept easily understood. Well, at the very least we have different understanding of what one is. From where I sit, I think ECB in its current form as well as its future form needs to consider language and the implications of using broad sweeping concepts that have an undefined nature amongst collaborators. Communities of Practice seem to be a good example. Another one is organizational change – this is one that has had many of us stumped since I came aboard the project more than a year ago. What is it that we are actually talking about and is a 2-3 year project really enough to institute it?


2) Another curious point was raised about the ECB3 meetings and the necessity of changing a mindset. This did not occur in Yogya where many PMT members were relocated to the emergency response but the thought never occurred to possibly collaborate on the emergency response itself, although the ECB 3 meetings continued in Yogya!


3) Finally, it was raised that the field needs to start the collaboration – it cannot come from above as in the first phase of ECB. It needs to make sense to the agencies on the ground. However, bearing that in mind, the current collaboration probably would not have happened without some outside force (HQs in this case). So the question here is where does it come from if we are going to collaborate through a bigger field focused initiative in Phase II? What would the role be for Country Programs? Which Country Programs? Who chooses the Country Programs? How do HQs fit in? If it is truly field-focused in the next phase then will the collaboration develop organically? Or will we have similar issues to the first round? Is it chicken or is it egg?


Other than this, I have not seen any great surprises thus far in the workshop. Organically grown field collaboration, good communication, ensuring pre-existing capacity, and potential common tools (assessments) are all issues that have been flagged as being important to some of the agencies here. I wonder if the same issues would have been raised by folks involved in ECB 3 in the other 2 pilot countries.


Tomorrow some of these ideas will be fleshed out in more detail with Phase II in mind. We’ll keep you posted on new developments….. after all the "how" is the tricky part.


Charlie Ehle,
Emergency Response Specialist,
Catholic Relief Services

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Notes from the Phase II workshop in Jakarta

As we design the Jakarta workshop, the challenge in front of us is daunting. How to set up a process where we first inform…then capture ideas on where the problem lies, get feedback on ways forward and then ask the question: what can we do together as agencies to make it better? Fortunately this is a pretty darn talented team, including a board member of major NGOs, a former executive from Save, the author of 2 books on alliances and collaboration and a experienced emergency field staff member who also processes excellent skills as fund raiser and writer. And none of them is me!


Fortunately most of the jet lag has worn off and minds are working. Adriaan Ferf conceptualizes, Jordan Lewis challenges and keeps the team honest , Spee Braun helps us focus on realities and objectives and Julian Srodecki makes sure we are positive in messaging and language. The level of energy here is very high … folk in the room are committed and willing to speak out based on real desire to get this right…there is no “ok if that’s the way you think stuff”. And its just as well. Tomorrow we will ask 25 odd experienced humanitarian professionals, most working in the field …how can we come together and practically improve our capacities to deliver humanitarian services.


One of the reasons its so exciting to be here is we have a real feeling we are here not because we forced it but because the folk here want their day to tell us what this project should and can do for the humanitarian community. In the next few posts, I'll tell you what they have to say.


Best Regards


Greg
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Brain Food at the Jakarta Phase II Workshop

How to get the most out of 30 people’s time? After 18 hours and 40 minutes flight from NY to Singapore and then about 2 hours more from Singapore to Jakarta, a very short nap, and a cumulative 6 cups of tea and coffee, this was the question all 4 members of the ECB Design Team brainstormed during planning for the Design Workshop: how to get the absolute most out of the 30 people attending, keep them active and build excitement for a potential stage two.

The first hour felt more like a storm, with only a little brain in there. Ideas flew here and there with little resemblance of form. A few white board drawings appeared, best described as some ancient and cryptic code, with each of us adding some abstract line to the others drawings. Needless to say not a great start, but Spee did finally rein in the team so that we got back to schedule and form….with some powerful ideas coming together for the workshop.

More puzzles at dinner together and what can only be described as some very strange food. Ever been to a Korean-Japanese restaurant? Basically a Korean version of Japanese cuisine. Very good in some ways …raw fish, soup and sashimi ….but I have to admit a couple of tastes were rather too much for me. Only big worry came when some fish eggs came wrapped in a leaf tube and Adriaan decided that, no, you don’t scoop it out …you eat the raw bitter leaf as well ..just put the whole thing in your mouth and eat it. I hope he makes it to breakfast this morning.

More notes when our colleagues join us and the real work begins.

Greg, Jakarta

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Malaika blogs from the ECB2 Advisors' meeting in DC

A year is a long time in the ECB project. After all it was this same time last year that ECB2 had its first face to face meeting in NY city just as fall was starting to gust through the streets. The only thing that was newer than the faces around the table was the workplan, summoned into existence because the advisors felt the original Gates-approved workplan would not help them achieve the real accountability and impact measurement needs of their agency. Brave souls that they were, they decided to try something else. None of us knew what we were in for!
Naturally, a year’s worth of hindsight provides much room for contemplation—and overall, it seems that the news is good. Updates from each agency show that indeed, things are happening. ECB2 brings that extra shoulder against the wheel of organizations’ progress on accountability and impact measurement. Some have hired monitoring and evaluation staff (Save and Mercy Corps) or adopting or developing M&E policies (CARE and Mercy Corps). This is of course a blatant overstatement but it seems as though the guide is on its way to celebrity status in some field locations and has so far made appearances in four languages. We cannot get deployments together fast enough for standing team members, their eagerness in itself being a success story, and the two we have had so far have garnered, in the case of the first, positive though largely absent feedback, and in the second case, fairly enthusiastic reviews from the field. And let’s not forget that we helped Jock Baker achieve his workplan (sorry, inside joke to ECB2).
Of course the trials and seemingly impenetrable organizational obstacles dog every success – lack of staff, lack of staff time, lack of skilled people –how many times did we hear these and other staff capacity refrains (help us out, ECB1). Getting the organizations to treat accountability and impact measurement with the gravity and fervency of commitment that they deserve and the million dollar, pound, question of how we get the field engaged.
What was different this year ( at least in my limited perspective) was a sense of having crested or nearly crested a wave of daring, creative and highly speculative ideas. Starting out as a group of strangers not much more than a year ago, we did things that hadn’t been done – created a standing team that helped us wade through difficult brainstorming sessions and emerge with bright ideas. The group dynamics were much different – this was a group of people that had built interpersonal relationships. We had buckets full of lessons learned under our seven-stranded belt (again, permit me to exaggerate) and we had some nice shining successes to be proud of. As one of small group put it, gettng seven large complex agencies to agree on anything is an accomplishment! Look how far we’ve come.

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Davos Notes: Warner on Vietnam and the role of business in DRR

I spent the morning of last Wednesday, 'Environmental Vulnerability Day' at the conference, talking shop with a series of participants. First was the 2-hr afternoon session convened by Marilise Turnbull on "Using the Hyogo Framework in Oxfam's Humanitarian Program in Vietnam". Marilise introduced the sole presenter, Provash Mondal, the Oxfam GB lead in Vietnam. He made a nice practical presentation for some 45 mins, with some really interesting and promising material. He stated "children were the real vulnerable groups". After a couple of questions, Marilise split the 15 or so attendees into two groups, gave them discussion points, flip charts, pens, and asked each to focus on manners in which to adapt or approach this DRR program in Vietnam. It was exciting and inclusive, and several participants were very happy to actually get involved in the sessions.

The session on "The role of business in DRR" was very interesting. Convened by David Peppiatt, the outgoing head of the ProVention Consortium (going to be number 2 in the International Dept of BritCross), he presented Alyson Warhurst who gave an overview of the provocative report she had just completed, commissioned by ProVention. Each of the other 4 panelists then discussed the report and then the floor was opened for the rest of the 90 min session. Alyson stated that "97% of disaster deaths occur in developing countries", and the lack of research materials and data to make an economic case for the business role. However, her approach was "in the absence of data, use logic' and her basic tenet was that "the way forward is through partnership", and "the value case is driven by human rights". Shruti Mehrotra, an old colleague now with the World Economic Forum, stated that "the WEF believes risk reduction has a major focus for business" but difficult to articulate. Focus should be on continuity of service, business redundancy systems, and risk management; talk the talk of the person listening to make headway. Also stressed the difficulty of dealing with "non-events", i.e. business investment in prevention and preparation when no disasters actually occur. As Thomas Loster from Munich Re Foundation stated, "fire fighting is sexy, fire prevention is not". I'll leave Charlie to comment on Terry Jeggle's (UNISDR) comments about "metrics" and Ngo use of business terminology.
During questioning, Shruti mentioned that the head of the influential Carlyle Group recently stated to the WEF about risk management that "we do this to buy good will", so we are all aware at the business prerogative at making profits and appeasing shareholders. But the personal interest of CEOs also plays a large part.

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Davos Diary: Charlie takes the leap

Although most of you know that I got engaged earlier this year which is what most would understand as the beginning of "taking the leap." Well- I did it again but in a different way today... PARAGLIDING! The way I see it sometimes we need to take risks in order to understand limits whether personal, professional, physical or otherwise. What seemed like a huge "leap" from the valley was actually not so bad in practice - in fact it was lovely! From a bird's eye view of the Dschima Valley and surrounding areas - you can really see how vulnerable such a town might be from avalanches and floods and rock falls. OK - so the paragliding trip wasn't exactly part of any conference session or PhD paper, but it did seem a bit odd that this was advertised AND organized through the International Disaster Risk REDUCTION Conference! I have to say that one must try paragliding - what a wonderful experience - running off the side of a mountain and leaping into vast open air - floating at the same altitude as the clouds - catching a thermal and riding high above the peaks! We floated and circled and glided over Davos for nearly 25 minutes. If you haven't done it yet - you must try it. Once I get back I will try to scan the pictures so that you can all see what the birds do!

Charlie Ehle

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Davos Diary Continued: Heather on Glaciers and Academic Partnerships

1) As is often the case, I suppose, getting an opportunity to get out of one's chair and consider nature while out IN nature is perhaps one of the better ways to learn. The educational excursion on geomorphology of glaciers (day 1) held many important thoughts that clearly applied to DRR work around the world for the 20 intrepid (and soggy) participants. Through the eyes of an experienced alpinist, the glacial morane of the Dischma Valley informs us of risks (avalanches occur at least every 100 years so if you choose to live there, you and your children need to be prepared) and of mitigation through knowledge (don't build your home or your barn at the base of a stream of waterfall coming off the mountains; these act as natural "deltas" carrying rocks, mud vegetation and increasing the probability of landslides). When we as emergency responders walk into new places where a natural disaster has struck, how often are we considering the risks and knowledge offered by the terrain itself? Are we arming ourselves with historic geologic, botanical, scientific knowledge of these areas before we influence the re-building of what has been lost/destroyed? I, for one, certainly came away from this session with the awareness to do so. 2) Wow. Lots of talk. The plenaries were a bit too full of speakers and not terribly well organized to ensure that ideas are not repeated by the full panel. Hopefully, these got better in the final days of the conference... 3) Opportunities for networking abounded both within the conference center and outside. I will surely share contacts with colleagues here at Save the Children who are doing interesting and, in some cases, ingenious work in the areas of emergency and child safety education. Opportunities to talk to our academic partners from universities (around the world) also highlighted for me an important resource that we, as NGOs, are often unable to tap into in a relevant way: able-bodied and able-minded researchers who are anxious to develop the evidence base for the challenges we face in our work and for the results that we seek. The UN has no problem engaging academics to research topics of interest to them. Where is the divide, then, between academic research and the community-based work that we do? Timing and timeliness are two challenges, of course, as research, analysis and documentation of findings is not a fast process -- and we are, after all, responding in emergency settings. Funding is another challenge. But, I learned from several academics that I talked to that they can get the money if we can feed them the ideas and give them the access to the field. But, deep down, I also wonder whether there is an ideological divide that we may need to start breaking down into its component parts so that we can get a better understanding of when and where NGOs and universities can and should be working hand-in-hand.

Heather Danton
Save the Children US ECB3 Advisor

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Davos Diary Day 5: Tess on Ecosystems, Coca-Cola and the secret lives of the Swiss

Having spent the last week in and out of different sessions, ranging from highly technical to more soft topics, I have been surprised and in fact shocked, at the general inability of high positioned DRR professionals to present in manner that should be equated to their standing. That said, the way the conference was organised, with competing sessions and many presenters having very limited time to present was certainly to their disadvantage.

Yet a few stood out from the muddle. The Environment Day key note speeches by Anders Wijkman (MEP) and Reid Basher (UNISDR secretariat) and subsequent plenary were impressive and thought provoking, the primary message being that we in the DRR community must make DRR our primary concern (I think we buy into that already don’t we fellow ECBers?). I have reams of notes from this session and some marvellous quotes which I was going to use here but it seems I can’t understand most of them – they need time and consideration, which I don’t have given the pressure to get this blog whisked off right this minute!

I can say however that the ‘Millennium Ecosystem Assessment’ was brought to my attention during this session, this document being quoted as a ‘stark warning regarding human behaviour and the environment. According to this document, more than half the developing worlds population will be at risk of serious flood by 2025. With statistics such as this can we afford not to relate these disasters to climate change and can we afford not to direct research into the relationship between DRR, Climate Change and appropriate adaptation strategies? I had not heard of this document before (should I have? have I had my head in the sand? – quite possibly – but hey – I can’t know everything!!!) and it’s a document that I will certainly be seeking out.

On a different note – what do others think of the Red Cross (in whatever form) linking with organisations such as Coca Cola and Walmart? I have some serious reservations about this – not helped by that ridiculous presentation from the guy from Coke during the IFRC plenary. Who is advising Coke that bottling plastic water and sending it to camps (such as those in Pakistan) is an appropriate response activity? What about the cost/benefit ratio, the environmental impact of thousands of plastic bottles, let alone the fact is just a pure PR stunt and all the other reasons I just can’t be bothered to list. Perhaps theys should bottle water and give it to all the Indian farmers whose wells have run dry because of the Coke bottling plant near to their villages. I was bordering on fuming listening to him and almost laughed out loud in a hysterical manner when he patted himself on the back for having such marvellous logistics that coke could be found in the most far flung places of thee world…… rant rant rant grrrrrrr. Am I over reacting? I would like to know others thoughts on this.
Anyway – apart from the serious, work side of the week, there are some memorable moments/observations that I would like to immortalise on paper:1. Erynn’s sheer joy and excitement over a self-clean, revolving toilet seat. She was so overjoyed that she now has it on video – to the confusion and slight dismay of one conference goer – who entered to toilet to find much giggling. I – on the other hand - looked at it in a different light and think I might leave the humanitarian sector to make my millions through the invention of one that actually dries the seat, saving you that slightly disconcerting moment when you sit down!2. Maurice playing with Warners utensils could have been a wonderful moment – but he hardly noticed - shame3. Paul now has a distinct interest in strange English expressions, examples of which I will not put here, however I do have a mission now to train him in the art of cockney rhyming slang…. Watch this space4. Gunawan’s passion for photographs is outstanding5. Never trust Swiss maps and estimated times for walking routes when you are up a mountain and have to catch a train later that day. Running full pelt downhill for 2 miles makes you seize up quite nicely the following day……6. Never get in a taxi in Zurich with two American girls (Erynn and Charlie) when you don’t speak German and have no idea where you want to go….. it can be expensive7. You can get interesting plastic granny pants in sex shops in Zurich (no we didn’t go in – they were in the window). I didn’t think the Swiss were like that?8. How does Heidi write those minutes in such a quick and orderly manner?
I’m sure there’s more but that’s it for now……..Thanks to all for making the week very enjoyable both in professional and silliness terms.Take care
Tess Williams, Oxfam

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Davos Diary: Maurice on Ballooning

Thursday 18.00 Special highlight: Bertrand Piccard, scientist / adventurer - 1st non stop round the world balloonist


If you want to make a difference in sustainable development or renewable energy or risk reduction then good intentions alone won't do it. Naïve altruism won't do it. According to Bertrand we need to be realistic, accept human nature for what it is, radically improve our "marketing" and appeal to State / Organisational and individual self interest and profit!
He talked about having the "idea", developing the technology to make it fly and marketing it in a way that appeals to governments, organisations and individuals.


His current big idea is a solar powered aeroplane with a massive wing span with 250 solar panels. No fuel, no pollution and theoretically perpetual flight is possible. He has the "idea", he is finalising the development of the technology and then he will appeal to the self interest of governments to fund a pilot project.


Will this fly?????


Maurice McQuillan
Catholic Relief Services

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